A quiet man's blog.

Video

Apr 04, 2013

English composerGustav Holst composed The Planets between 1914 and 1916. The Birmingham premiere of the suite took place in 1918, fifteen years before Pluto was discovered. Though the Planets became by far the most popular work of Holst's and one of the most known pieces by an English-born composer, Holst did not consider the piece one of his finest. Partially because of this, he never wrote an eighth movement, though unexpectedly the IAU relegated Pluto from its status as planet proper in 2006.

Mar 22, 2013

"It is probably no accident that Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, which is really the seminal work of the 20th century in so many ways, happened in 1913, just before the greatest conflagration that the world had ever known … Stravinsky talked of trying to recapture the violence, the sense of the earth cracking open, that he witnessed every spring in Russia…but on a deeper level, it's a musical metaphor for the vessel of an exhausted era cracking open." (Sir Simon Rattle)

Mar 10, 2013

Published on 9 Mar 2013
"Hawking" is the extraordinary story of the planet's most famous living scientist, told for the first time in his own words and by those closest to him. Made with unique access to Hawking's private life, this is an intimate and moving journey into Stephen's world, both past and present. An inspirational portrait of an iconic figure, Hawking relates his incredible personal journey from boyhood under-achiever, to PhD genius, to being diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease and given just two years to live. Despite the constant threat of death, Hawking manages to make many remarkable scientific discoveries and rises to fame and super-stardom. "Hawking" - a remarkable man, and a remarkable movie.

Sep 06, 2012

100 years ago today John Cage started leaving his mark on our cultural landscape. And, by the time he was all done, says The New Yorker’s resident music critic Alex Ross, “he may have surpassed Stravinsky as the most widely cited, the most famous and/or notorious, of twentieth-century composers,” with his influence extending “far outside classical music, into contemporary art and pop culture.”

I don't know enough about Higgs Boson to rule out the notion that using some ping pong balls, a bag of sugar and a tray from the work canteen isn't a painfully obvious way of explaining it. But certainly a few commenters online were quick to question the striking similarities between the BBC and Guardiandemonstrations.

Updated: The BBC has now added a line crediting The Guardian and Ian Sample:

Jun 23, 2012

Thanks to my obsession with watching vbs.tv at night, hoping to find new episode of Vice Guide to Travel – I stumbled across a mini documentary called Thorium Dream. Nothing has stimulated my “nerd endings” in quite some time as this little documentary did.